Taiwan Taipei Mission

Monday, December 1, 2014

Thanksgiving at the MTC

What a week this past week has been. It has been so inspirational and uplifting.

I'd
like to first start by saying thanks for all the letters and packages. I
really appreciate them and love receiving them each week.

Family:

Bryan:
Seems like you have had another amazing week in the Philippines. I
loved reading about the experiences you have had this week. Thanks for
being such a great example to me. Even though your my younger brother, I
look up to you so much! I think and pray for your success daily. Love
you!!

Marissa:
It sounds like you are doing great this week! In the family letter, mom
and dad wrote about how you had a singing lesson with Dean Kaelin in
Salt Lake. That is phenomenal. Please write me a dear elder and tell me
EVERYTHING! Please tell me about your opportunities to also try out for
the Voice next year. That is so great. I am so excited for you and where
your singing talent will take you. I'm so proud of you sis!!

Mom,
Dad, Lachlan, & Alexa: I loved reading the family email this week.
Thanksgiving seems like it was a blast. I did miss the good food and the
opportunity to spend time with family. Rocky looks adorable! And it
looks like you had a ton of fun at the BYU Basketball game with the
Haacke's.

My week:

So,
you probably are all wondering what in the world is going on with our
VISA'S!! To be honest, we don't really know either. Today, was supposed
to be our departure date so it's been kind of funny that we are all
still here...wondering if we will ever be able to leave the MTC. We went
and talked to the Travel Office this morning to see if they had heard
any additional information. They said that we will be here, at the MTC,
for at least another week. They officially cancelled our reassignments
(For those of you who don't know, my reassignment was to Colorado
Springs, Colorado) and we will just be waiting here at the MTC for our
visa's. Sis. Good's dad has been sending her emails about the updates as
well. He has been calling the Travel Office in Salt Lake. What we heard
today from her dad is that they filed our visa papers on Nov. 1 and it
normally now (with the new requirements) takes about 30-40 days for the
visas to be processed. So we are close, we are all just praying and
hoping we will get our visa's soon....Mom and dad, if you hear anything,
be sure to let me know :)

Tuesday:
Tuesday morning at 3 AM, we all got up to say goodbye to Sister Moe.
She left for the New York North Mission. Our entire district met at the
Travel Office to spend our last 30 minutes together. Even though it was 3
in the morning, we were still able to laugh and have a good time.
Saying goodbye to Sis. Moe was hard. To be honest, I shed a tear or two.
She has become like family to me. Since Sis. Moe has left, Sis. Allen,
Sis. Lindsay, and I have been a tri-companionship. Sis. Allen leaves
this Wednesday morning for Canada so after that, Sis. Lindsay and I will
just be companions again. It is weird saying goodbye to everyone that
is in our district and the other district that came in with us when we
are still going to be here for 7-14 days. Tuesday night devotional was
given by Elder and Sister Dallin H Oaks. It was so great. Sis. Oaks gave
5 main tips about being a great missionary. They were 1. Focus on our
Savior, Jesus Christ; 2. You're NOT alone; 3. LOVE your companion; 4. Be
Obedient; & 5. Make the Book of Mormon your best friend. Elder Oaks
likened our missions like a pen. A pen doesn't work unless you put it
to use. He asked what is really means to be a instrument in the hands of
God. He was really inspiring and gave some great counsel.

Wednesday:
Wednesday was just a normal day of classes and investigators. Every
day, we teach atleast one investigator and now since there is just two
companionships, in our district, we teach two or three different
investigators every day. Wednesday was the last day we taught Lu Jie
Mei. We got two new investigators, Chen Di Xiong and Qiu Jie Mei. I'm
looking forward to teaching them and learning and growing from every
lesson we give.

Thursday:
THANKSGIVING!!! Thanksgiving day was absolutely amazing. It was a day
full of powerful testimonies and a day to reflect on how grateful I am
for everything in my life. It was a day that I have even a further
desire to become the best person I can be. Thursday, at first, I really
missed my family and spending time with you all--but as the day went on,
I thought of how grateful I am for you, your support, and how I will
not only be able to live together with you in this life but also in the
life to come. I thought about the families that I will be able to teach
this great message to and how blessed their lives will become. Thursday
morning, we had a special choir practice for the General Authority
Devotional. The song we sang was Come Thou Fount. The MTC choir has
never sang this song because because I guess it is really hard. There
was a rumor going around the MTC that Elder Bednar was coming to speak
but no one really knew who it was going to be. During prelude music,
President and Sister Nally walked in and then Elder and Sister Bednar
walked in! I was so excited! Both this devotional and the devotional was
a broadcast to all the other MTC's around the world. It is really cool
when it is a broadcast. It was a neat experience to be able to be apart
of that. Sister Susan Bednar talked about our families praying for us on
a daily basis. She compared, us a missionaries, to the Sons of Helaman
in the Book of Mormon. One thing she said really stood out to me. She
said, "We have an obligation to be true and give our heart to the
Lord...Remember you represent yourself, remember you represent your
family, remember you represent the Savior, and remember you represent
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Elder David A Bednar
first quickly talked about agency and to act and not be acted upon. He
then had a huge question and answer session. Since it was a worldwide
broadcast, he handed out hundreds of cell phones to the Provo MTC
audience and the other MTC's got cellphones/tablets that they were able
to email questions and all the questions would be sent to the iPad Elder
Bednar had. I learned a lot from listening to the questions and the
answers Elder Bednar gave. One question that really stood out to me was,
"As missionaries, we say so many prayers during the day. How can we
better our prayers to be less repetitive?" Along with that, there were
many other questions answered. The very last question that was asked had
something to do with Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. He bore
powerful testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration of
this Gospel. The Spirit was definitely in the room. It was so profound.

After
lunch, we were split into two different groups according to our branch
number. The first session my branch was in was the service project. We
got assigned to groups of about 8 or 9 and we assembled Lentil Casserole
bags for the Provo Food Bank. I was incharge of holding the bags under
the funnel. It was really fun! Last year, the MTC made about 350,000
bags so we had a goal to beat that this year-which we did! We made
368,048. It was so neat to be able to be apart of such a large service
project. The Second Session was a Thanksgiving Program put together by
President and Sister Nally. Several Missionaries acted out the story
that was read by Sis. Nally. It was super funny. After the sessions were
over, all the missionaries met in 19M and there was a "Special Movie"
that was going to be showed. For prelude, we sang all these different,
fun, songs from the Primary Songbook. We, as the 2 Chinese zones, did
the actions to the songs,we had a ton of fun. The Special Movie they
showed us was Meet the Mormons!! When they announced it, everyone went
crazy!! Meet the Mormons was SO good!! If you haven't seen it, GO see
it!! I loved it. In fact, they were showing it as one of the movie
options after the devotional Sunday night and my district went to go see
it again!! After the movie, they had us all go by building 1M and they
turned on the Christmas lights! As a zone, we were standing kind of in
the middle of everyone and Elder Dorius started singing Santa Claus is
Coming to Town and so we all started singing. Everyone stopped and
looked at us and took pictures. It was really fun. People probably
thought that we were crazy...but, we have so much fun as a zone. The MTC
truly did spoil us for Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for all of you.
Thanks so much for your prayers and thoughts! I love you all!!

Friday:
Friday, we went to In-Field Orientation. It was 9 hours! So , super
long, but I learned a lot about the field, making goals, and involving
members.

Saturday:
Normal day of studying, classes, and teaching investigators. Our less
active agreed to 'come' to church with us so we were really excited
about that.

Sunday:
Sunday is always my favorite! For Relief Society, Sheri Dew came to
speak to us. Her talk was very powerful and filled with so much Spirit.
She talked about the priesthood and the power Women have with the
Priesthood. Sacrament meeting, I played the piano again, and District E
and my district sang our "Goodbye Song". We sang a song that Elder
Whitney wrote himself. It was really pretty. It was about serving
missions and relying on the Lord's help. Since we were supposed to be
leaving today, we got to go to the Departure Devotional which we just
got advice from the MTC presidency about the field. President Nally gave
us 6 things to remember. (a lot like the ones Sis. Oaks gave us). 1.
Love your companions no matter what; 2. Write in your Journal everyday;
3. IT IS HARD; 4. It is the Spirit's job to convert; 5. Have no regrets;
& 6. Increase your testimony of the Savior and Joseph Smith
everyday and bear it frequently. Sunday night devotional, BYU's Vocal
Point came and sang. They are phenomenal! It was a great devotional!!

This
morning, I saw Marilyn as she was walking in the temple. I am so glad I
have been able to see her these last couple of weeks. I love the temple
so much!!

Overall,
this week has been really good. I'm sorry this is really long! If you
made it to the end, congrats! I sure love and appreciate you all. I love
hearing from you!

LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Haacke

Saying good-bye to Sis. Moe.

Thanksgiving temple walk.

Tri-companionship

Us walking up to the temple.

Missionaries departing this week and also the missionaries all staying extra week in the MTC to get to Taiwan.